Abstract:
Joel Garreau: We are at a turning point in history. For millenniums our technologies — fire, clothes, agriculture, cities, space travel — have been aimed outward at modifying our environment. Now, for the first time, our technologies are increasingly aimed inward — at altering our minds, memories, metabolisms, personalities and progeny.

This is not some science fiction future. Such innovations are in the labs and hitting the market on our watch. Inexorable increases in ingenuity are opening vistas, especially in what we may call GRIN — genetic, robotic, information and nano — technologies.